Big-spending Agencies About Due For Change

GARY STEIN

When it comes to government agencies crying and moaning about the need for more money, we`ve got some real pros in Florida.

Of course, we`ve always got law enforcement types saying they need more money to protect us from assorted slimeballs.

And we`ve got all sorts of other agencies and departments that always have their palms up when it comes to tax money.

But when it comes to really crying poverty, two agencies you can always count on are the Department of Transportation and the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services.

Yeah, they just never have enough money to do the job. They always need more. They`re always short of greenbacks. Very sad.

And do you want to know one possible reason why they never have enough money?

Perhaps it has something to do with how they spend money like drunken sailors on a binge.

And perhaps it has something to do with money that goes toward so many consultants and studies.

And you know who should really be crying and moaning about this?

Just look in the mirror, you tax-paying sap.

HERE, WANT SOME MONEY?

Ah, you really have to love our friends over at DOT, who never met a consultant they didn`t love.

I mean, how can you forget how the DOT gave James Stoetzel and others in his firm $615,000 -- including thousands to fly from Florida to their Boston homes on weekends -- for consulting on Tri-Rail, which means they got about $100,000 per passenger.

Now comes word that DOT has scrapped the idea of putting a turnpike interchange at Oakland Park Boulevard -- after spending $150,000 on a study.

Actually, the DOT signed a $371,000 contract to study the impact of having turnpike exit and entrance ramps at Oakland Park Boulevard and Northwest 49th Avenue -- in the middle of big condos, shopping centers, pedestrians, senior citizens, Florida Medical Center, etc.

Residents and elected officials immediately, and justifiably, went bonkers when told about the interchange. A six-year-old kid could have told you this was a ludicrous idea, without a consulting fee.

But DOT signed a $371,000 contract -- last week, the state said it would only pay the consultant $150,000 for the half-finished study -- to find that out.

``It was one of the silliest things I ever heard to spend that kind of money,`` Lauderdale Lakes Mayor Al Gereffi said.

Of course, we also learned last week that the purchase of 38 new buses for Broward County Transit is in jeopardy because the DOT doesn`t have $422,000 it promised the county to help secure a federal grant.

Hmmmm. They are $422,000 short. Sounds like six months` fee for a consultant.

$2.4 MILLION FOR ANOTHER STUDY

Not to be outdone, the folks at HRS are spending $2.4 million -- that`s not a typo -- on a research study that could deprive 5,500 indigent Floridians of job training and child-care services.

You see, thousands of Floridians are eligible for help from Project Independence, which provides welfare recipients with job training and other benefits. The aim is to get families off welfare.

And HRS is going to give a research company in New York $2.4 million for a five-year study to see how maybe 25 percent of those eligible for benefits will get along if job training and other help is taken away.

Going out on a limb, I`m betting those 5,500 random guinea pigs who cruelly have their benefits removed won`t do as well or find jobs as easily as those who retain their benefits.